Europe: valid criticism?

An Austrian woman, who was prosecuted for ‘denigrating’ Muhammed because she proposed the consummation of his marriage when his ‘wife’ was nine-years-old was paedo-philia, asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to retry the case in the Grand Chamber, it was reported in March.

She is supported by a petition of more than 55,000 signatories who want to ‘defend the right to criticise Islam in Europe’*. The retrying of a case is only considered in 5% of requests if ‘the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention or the Protocols thereto or a serious issue of general importance’.

In October, en reported that the ECHR had validated the conviction of the Austrian lecturer, Mrs Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, for saying ‘a man of 56 with a six-year-old girl … what is it, if not paedophilia?’ She had been speaking to 30 people at a seminar entitled ‘Elementary Knowledge of Islam’. A journalist present called her out on her comment; the account of the marriage is an historical fact. She was convicted on the basis of a criminal provision prohibiting blasphemy in substance. Demonstrating the regressive nature of the judgment, Pakistan welcomed the initial ruling of the ECHR.